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The UC3M and CODERE present the Yearbook of Gaming in Spain 2018

10/31/18

The Institute of Policy and Governance (Initials in Spanish: IPOLGOB) of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the Foundation CODERE have presented the Yearbook of Gaming in Spain 2018 on the UC3M’s Madrid-Puerta de Toledo campus.

The Yearbook attempts to display the reality of the sector through a presentation of statistics and data divided into autonomous communities, integrating different sources and a general analysis of the legal and administrative regulations and decisions on the sector. This new edition highlights that Spanish people played 9,408 million euros in 2017, maintaining an increase for the third year in a row and increasing by 8 per cent with regards to 2015.

For the author of the Yearbook, José Antonio Gómez Yáñez, lecturer in sociology at the UC3M and member of IPOLGOB, “the development of the sector is inherent to Spanish people’s new entertainment habits which develop in accordance with the demand from society and the different stages of maturity of the gaming activities”.

According to the report, gaming is a powerful motor of economic growth and wealth that represents 0.9 per cent of Spanish GDP. In 2017, it generated 84,702 direct jobs (getting back to the levels from 2011), of which 55 per cent correspond to the private sector and the 45 remaining per cent corresponding to the public. What is more, it indirectly creates 167,000 job positions.

In 2017, the sector contributed 1,657.4 million euros in specific taxes of the sector (gaming tax) to public funds, on top of the taxes arising from the development of its economic activity.

Growth of gaming in Spain

In 2017, the real gaming in Spain (the amount gambled minus the rewards) represented 9,408 million euros, as opposed to 8,716.5 million euros in 2015. Analysing the evolution of data, experts point out that it can be appreciated that the gaming sector has gotten over the crisis and that between 2014 and 2017 it has increased by around 19 per cent, despite still being 12.3 per cent lower than 2008’s levels. “Getting out of the crisis meant a ‘restructuring’ opportunity for the sector, boosted particularly by the regulation of online activity, the growth of game rooms and betting or bringing casinos into the centre of cities”, the report notes.

94 per cent of gaming (around 8,442 million euros) was done on-site and 6 per cent (around 444 million euros) was done online. The online channel has experienced a major increase (over 30 per cent), with relatively similar increases in all the games, except in the competitions and poker. In the on-site segment, the biggest increase has been in game rooms (around 15.9 per cent) and sports betting (around 15.7 per cent).